New estimates of age‐ and sex‐specific earnings and the male–female earnings gap in the British cotton industry, 1833–19061

Abstract

This article introduces a new set of estimates of average weekly age‐ and sex‐specific earnings paid at each year of age between 13 and 60 years of age to males and females employed in the British cotton industry between 1833 and 1906. As one example of the use of the estimates, the article shows how the estimates provide insights into changes in the male–female earnings gap in one key industrial group of workers in Victorian Britain. An appendix provides estimates of the population‐weighted average weekly full‐time money earnings of British cotton operatives, in pence per week, by sex, of the age groups: <13, 13–17, 18–60+, and 13–60+.